National Literacy Act of 1991

National Literacy Act of 1991 - Title I: Literacy: Strategic Planning, Research, and Coordination - Amends the Department of Education Organization Act to direct the Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education to coordinate literacy-related programs.

Amends the Adult Education Act (AEA) to establish the National Institute for Literacy and the National Institute Board. Authorizes the Institute to award Literacy Leader Fellowships. Authorizes appropriations.

Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make grants to establish a network of State or regional adult literacy resource centers. Authorizes appropriations.

Title II: Workforce Literacy - Establishes in the Department of Labor a National Workforce Literacy Assistance Collaborative. Authorizes appropriations.

Amends the Adult Education Act (AEA) to revise provisions for national workforce literacy strategies grants to business, industry, labor, and education partnerships for workplace literacy. Requires the Secretary of Education (the Secretary), in awarding grants for exemplary demonstration partnerships for workplace literacy, to: (1) give priority to partnerships which include small businesses; and (2) limit such grant awards to not more than three years.

Directs the Secretary to reserve a specified amount, whenever appropriations for workforce literacy partnership grants exceed a certain level, to establish a program of grants for large-scale national workforce literacy strategies. Authorizes appropriations for AEA workforce literacy programs.

Title III: Investment in Literacy - Extends through FY 1995 the authorization of appropriations for programs under the Adult Education Act (AEA).

Revises the use of funds under the AEA basic State grants program. Requires that basic grants to States also be used for competitive two-year Gateway Grants to public housing authorities for literacy programs and related activities. Requires biennial evaluations and reports on such Gateway Grants.

Revises State administration provisions under AEA to require State agencies to develop and implement, within two years, indicators of program quality to evaluate assisted programs' effectiveness, including whether such programs are successfully recruiting, retaining, and improving the literacy skills of the individuals served.

Revises AEA to include, under provisions for State advisory councils, plans, and evaluations, literacy-related responsibilities. Requires States to evaluate 20 percent of AEA grant recipients each year, so that at the end of the four-year plan reauthorization period 80 percent of all grant recipients shall have been evaluated once.

Provides for training educators to recognize and serve illiterate individuals more effectively.

Directs the Secretary to develop, within one year, indicators of program quality that State and local programs receiving AEA assistance may use as models to judge program success, including success in recruiting and retaining students and improving their literacy skills.

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to revise targeted assistance programs under ESEA to include training programs to enhance the ability of teachers and school counselors to identify, particularly in the early grades, students with reading and related problems which place them at risk for adult illiteracy.

Renames the Even Start program under ESEA as the Even Start Family Literacy Program. Revises the program to expand eligibility to include community-based organizations, or other nonprofit organizations of demonstrated quality applying in collaboration with a local educational agency (LEA) (as well as LEAs and LEA consortia). Sets minimum grant amounts. Makes individual children eligible from birth through age seven (currently from age one through age seven). Provides for continuation of eligibility for certain participants until the parents become ineligible due to educational achievement, or until all children in the family attain age eight. Gives priority to applicants demonstrating that the area to be served has a high percentage or a large number of children and adults in need of program services. Authorizes appropriations for the Even Start Family Literacy Program.

Establishes a Family Literacy Public Broadcasting Program. Authorizes the Secretary of Education, subject to availability of appropriations, to contract with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for production and dissemination of family literacy programming and accompanying materials to assist parents in improving family literacy skills and languages development. Requires CPB to: (1) cooperate with local public broadcasting stations; (2) arrange for distribution of audio and video instructional media materials for use, and distribution on loan, to families at sites chosen from among State and local libraries with literacy programs and nonprofit entities serving hard-to-serve populations; and (3) report to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations for the Family Literacy Public Broadcasting Program.

Title IV: Business Leadership for Employment Skills - Amends the Adult Education Act (AEA) to provide for education programs for commercial drivers. Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make competitive matching grants for adult education programs which increase the literacy skills of eligible commercial drivers so that they may successfully complete the knowledge test requirements under the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986. Requires grantees to refer individuals identified as having literacy skill problems to appropriate adult education programs. Authorizes appropriations.

Title V: Books for Families - Revises the ESEA inexpensive book distribution program to require that priority be given in selection of additional local programs to those which serve children and students with special needs. Requires the program contractor (Reading is Fundamental) to report to the Secretary of Education annually on such additional programs.

Amends the Library Services and Construction Act to direct the Secretary of Education, in awarding grants for library literacy programs and services, to give priority to those that: (1) will be delivered in areas of greatest need with highest concentrations of adults without secondary education or its equivalent, and which either have few community or financial resources or have low per capita income or unemployment or underemployment; and (2) coordinate with literacy organizations and community-based organizations providing literacy services.

Title VI: Blue Ribbon Awards for Correctional Education Programs - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education, through nominations provided by the Office of Correctional Education, to make one or more annual blue ribbon awards for correctional education programs which are effective and innovative for inmate education and literacy.

Title VII: Volunteers for Literacy - Amends the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 to establish a Literacy Challenge Grants program. Authorizes the Director of the ACTION Agency to award such grants to eligible public and private entities to pay the Federal share of costs of establishing, operating, or expanding community or employee literacy programs that include the use of full- or part-time volunteers. Authorizes appropriations for Literacy Challenge Grants, but only if there are specified levels of funding for the VISTA Program and the VISTA Literacy Corps.

Title VIII: Amendments Affecting the Territories and the Freely Associated States - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for the eligibility of otherwise qualified: (1) students attending institutions of higher education in any of the freely associated states for Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Special Programs for Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (TRIO programs), and the Income Contingent Direct Loan Demonstration Project; and (2) institutions of higher education in any of the freely associated states for assistance under Special Programs for Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (TRIO programs).

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to: (1) revise certain references under the Territorial Teacher Training Assistance Program; and (2) provide for reservation of funds for making grants to local educational agencies in specified territories and the freely associated states under a competition conducted by the Pacific Regional Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Revises certain references relating to specified territories and the freely associated states in the Adult Education Act, the Star Schools Program Assistance Act, the Education of the Handicapped Act, and the Library Services and Construction Act.